Author Archives: marystojak

About marystojak

Mary Stojak has published numerous short stories, her latest will be published September 28th in Mystery Weekly.

Malice Domestic 2019

Posted on April 29, 2019 by marystojak

If you haven’t been keeping track of the Agatha award nominees, now is a good time to jump into the fray! I have too many nominees that I love this year, especially in Historical Mysteries and Short Stories! You can … Continue reading →

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Daniel Jose Older – Salsa Nocturna Stories

Posted on September 5, 2014 by marystojak

Readers ask where we get our ideas. I’ve told some about how a whole book was driven by a poor lady I first met in a low security mental hospital in Hastings, Minnesota many years ago and later, updated by a … Continue reading →

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Networking

Posted on August 30, 2014 by marystojak

Conferences are a great way to figure out where your writing stands in the scheme of things. They’re also a way to add to your list of writing friends and find a agent for your next project. I’m one of … Continue reading →

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Everything old is new again…..

Posted on March 4, 2013 by marystojak

Okay, it’s an old, old story. Life gets in the way, creates a space that doesn’t want you to write. You hurt your hand, or in my case your shoulder. It’s hard enough to keep doing the work that pays … Continue reading →

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Getting Back in the Game

Posted on September 22, 2012 by marystojak

I’ve been off for a while, out of whack. Every writer probably goes through a phase where we get kind of stalled and can’t write. This year has been one of mine. Okay, so you’re totally out of it, you don’t even … Continue reading →

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SCBWI Post Conference

Posted on July 16, 2012 by marystojak

The SCBWI regional conference in Frederick, MD this past weekend was fabulous. Congratulations to Edie and Lois!  I’ve never seen such a great line-up outside of a national conference! Had a critique session with agent Molly Jaffa which was great, … Continue reading →

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Chill Time

Posted on July 5, 2012 by marystojak

The beach is a great place to just relax. I’m pretty good at turning off thoughts about my day job these days but life is always interrupting our creative lives too. And then I have been reading more on line lately … Continue reading →

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Pitching Agents

Posted on July 1, 2012 by marystojak

I love that title although it reminds me that after sweltering in the 90-something heat yesterday, the Orioles pitching was less than adept. Actually, I’m procrastinating as usual about my preparation for a meeting with an agent in about two … Continue reading →

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Do You Outline?

Posted on June 23, 2012 by marystojak

I think I said in one of my early posts that I did do an outline for my first book. I carried around a stack of note cards and wrote down scenes as I thought of them. I figured about three scenes per … Continue reading →

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What I Write About

Posted on June 17, 2012 by marystojak

Yes, I did write yesterday, all day. I was only revising ten pages for a critique at a SCBWI conference but I was transposing old verbiage into my current style. Probably would have been easier to rewrite from scratch but … Continue reading →

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